Bun­pin gets new look for fes­ti­val

THE mys­ti­cal Bun­pin has had a restyle in the lead-up to the 26th an­nual Ein­bun­pin Fes­ti­val in Sandgate this Sun­day, July 30.

The fes­ti­val mas­cot is now fur­rier, scalier and spark­lier with the help from a mis­match of ma­te­ri­als from the com­mu­nity.

Cr Jared Cas­sidy (Deagon Ward) said the Bun­pin has had a few mod­i­fi­ca­tions to pre­pare for the big day. “A cou­ple of vol­un­teers on our com­mit­tee, such as Kelly

Carr from Ar­tra­geous and Mary Todd, de­cided this year to give him a restyle,” Cr Cas­sidy said.

“Keep­ing in with the story of the Ein­bun­pin and mak­ing him eas­ier to wear, it’s a lot of re­cy­cled ma­te­ri­als.

“The story of the Bun­pin was writ­ten over 25 years ago.

“He’s a mys­ti­cal crea­ture made from dif­fer­ent parts of dif­fer­ent an­i­mals from the la­goon.

“So this suit is a good rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the story.”

The fes­ti­val runs from 9am to 4pm and will in­clude more than 150 stalls from schools, com­mu­nity groups and busi­nesses along with fam­ily ac­tiv­i­ties, fly­zard throw­ing and egg and spoon races.

“It will be a bit dif­fer­ent; we still have four stages but the main stage has been scaled down to make it more in­ti­mate,” Cr Cas­sidy said.

“You will be able to go to the CWA stall and get your jam scones and watch an act.

“There’ll be more room for ac­tiv­i­ties like mul­let toss­ing and tug-of-war, which is in its sec­ond year and is re­ally pop­u­lar.

“Snap Fit­ness is giv­ing the best male and fe­male mul­let tossers a six month mem­ber­ship so they will be able to train up for the next year.

The en­ter­tain­ment will be spread over four stages – Bun­pin Stage in La­goon Street (op­po­site QML), Lily Stage in La­goon Street (op­po­site the old pre-school), Fes­ti­val Stage near the cor­ner or Brighton Road and Keogh Street, and the Fes­ti­val Arena stage in the cen­tre of the park.

There will also be the Jabiru Youth ac­tiv­ity bus, Bris­bane City Coun­cil pop-up li­brary with a ro­bot­ics work­shop, and an art com­pe­ti­tion with works for sale.

“The theme of the fes­ti­val is Cel­e­brat­ing our Com­mu­nity and that’s ex­actly what we will be do­ing on Sun­day with the fo­cus on lo­cal stalls, en­ter­tain­ment and ac­tiv­i­ties by many and var­ied com­mu­nity groups and or­gan­i­sa­tions, schools, busi­nesses and in­di­vid­u­als from the area,” Cr Cas­sidy said.

“It is a fan­tas­tic op­por­tu­nity to show­case the fab­u­lous area we live and work in.”

To help fes­ti­val go­ers get to Ein­bun­pin La­goon the

Wiz bus will be free all day, stop­ping in Deagon, Brighton, Sandgate and Shorn­cliffe to ease park­ing con­ges­tion.

For the sched­ule and more in­for­ma­tion visit www.ein­bun­pin­fes­ti­val. org.au.

PHOTO: RE­NEE MCKE­OWN

From art to ac­tiv­i­ties Cr Jared Cas­sidy and the Bun­pin are ex­pect­ing to have a whole lot of fun dur­ing the Ein­bun­pin Fes­ti­val in Sandgate.